Tea party leader: Ryan ‘can kiss goodbye any chances of running for president in 2016′

The leader of one tea party group said Wednesday that Wisconsin Republican Paul Ryan may be blowing his chance to run for president in 2016 with his newly announced budget deal.

“If Paul Ryan puts his name to any plan that takes away the sequester, the most effective mechanism we’ve had in the past decade to actually cut spending, he can kiss goodbye any chances of running for president in 2016,” Todd Cefaratti, the founder of the tea party group TheTeaParty.net, said Wednesday.

Ryan — the 2012 GOP vice presidential nominee and House budget chairman — unveiled a budget deal with Senate Democrat Patty Murray on Tuesday that they say prevents another government shutdown.

But conservatives are not happy with the discretionary spending levels in Ryan and Murray’s “Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013.” While sequestration — the across-the-board spending cuts to government agencies — capped 2014 spending levels at $967 billion, the Ryan-Murray deal raises that spending level to $1.012 trillion.

“This is a suicide mission for the Republicans,” Cefaratti of TheTeaParty.net said. “After last year’s epic New Year’s Eve cave, Republicans are now contemplating another. They’ve fallen for the media spin that conservatives trying to cut spending are the problem in Washington.”

Since the deal was announced, Ryan and the House GOP leadership have argued the actual deal succeeds in maintaining spending cuts, saying it would reduce the deficit by $20 billion to $23 billion.

“I’m proud of this agreement,” Ryan said. “It reduces the deficit — without raising taxes. And it cuts spending in a smarter way. It’s a firm step in the right direction, and I ask all my colleagues in the House to support it.”

Speaking on CNBC’s Kudlow Report on Tuesday, House majority leader Eric Cantor explained that most of the sequester still remains in place. He said the deal is “an agreement on less than 10% of that sequester money.”

“I think the important piece to this deal, and yes it is a modest deal, is we maintain the savings of the sequester,” Cantor said.